April i6, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
BOS 
of a raven, and looking across to the opposite shore 
I saw several birds take wing. Something told me that 
the wolf lay there, but despite my conviction I could not 
rid myself of an unpleasant feeling that I had poisoned 
somebody's dog as I approached, and saw a great white 
animal stretched full length on a patch of bloody, trampled 
snow. But it was a wolf sure enough. Old Lobo, king 
of the Corrumpaw, reincarnated and fallen again a 
victim to man's treachery. There lay the hoary mon- 
arch, a monster of his kind. Our sled measured 7ft. in 
length, and when frozen stiff this wolf was almost as 
long from nose to extended hindfeet. His robe was 
white as tiicarctic snow on head and neck, and only onhis 
back was there a suggestion of gray. One glazed blind 
eye and two yellow tushes groAving outside his mouth on 
the same side gave a sardonic expression to the pro- 
file that happened to be uppermost. A great gash in 
his side, torn by the ravens, mixing red with the white 
of his coat and the white of the snow added to the sug- 
gestiveness of the picture — a picture Avhich told with 
a few direct strokes of a life of rapine and blood ended 
in blood and rapijie. 
I doubt if the wolf was dead when the ravens first 
attacked him. He had fallen down half a dozen times 
before reaching the last spot, and at several of these 
places were bloody splotches on fhe snow. There were 
also hieroglyphic marks made by the ravens' wings in 
taking Ifight that strongly suggested the Egyptian sym- 
bol of eternity on the front of the old Tombs Prison in 
New York. 
I shouldered the wolf, which I should say weighed 
I25lbs., and carried him back to camp. Then 1 set to 
\vork sledding supplies from the wrecked boats to the 
site of our cache. 1 had taken the poison from the spot 
where it was left the night before, but on finding the 
dead wolf I concealed it in a crevice under the river 
bank, as I could not well carry it to camp along with the 
wolf. I thought I would return that evening and put 
some out. Events which took place a little later, how- 
ever, caused me to give up this plan. 
Some time during the afternoon I noticed a fresh wolf 
track beside my sled trail that if it had been there before 
had certainly not attracted my attention. I wondered if 
the old wolf had come so far in the hours preceding his 
death. I drew my load up the river bank and back a 
couple of hundred yards through a thick growth of small 
spruces to the spot selected for the cache. It was but 
a moment's work to unfasten the tie rope and throw off 
my. load, yet before I reached the river again I found 
a fresh wolf track crossing niy recent sled trail, and con- 
sequently made still more recently. 
This was interesting. A wolf was unquestionably 
following me, possibly attracted by the scent of the other 
wolf on my clothing, influenced by what motive it was 
hard to imagine. My partner had gone to Selkirk and 
would not be back till after dark, but this caused me 
no uneasiness on his account or my own, for I did not 
for a moment believe that the wolf would dare attack 
a man. 
Its boldness in following so close on my trail in broad 
daylight, however, suggested the possibilitv of securing 
a shot, so the next trip and thereafter I carried a rifle 
on the sled. 
Just about the time when it should have been sunset — 
we nevei^. saw any sun at that place, owing to the moun- 
tains which walled in the river— in rounding the point 
of an island I noticed where the wolf had come along 
the trail in my direction, and suddenly sprang off and gal- 
loped away down the narrow channel separating the 
island from the mainland. 
The natural inference was that he had been surprised 
hy my unexpected return, and was still in the imme- 
d:ate_ neighborhood. Acting on this theory, I seized 
my rifle and ran down the river to a place where I could 
get an unobstructed view^ of the ice from shore to shore. 
I expected to see that wolf, and yet when he appeared, 
looming up very dark against the snow of the river 
bank, I could hardly believe my eyes. I only saw him 
a moment before he disappeared in the timber on the 
mainland, too far off for a shot. My impression was 
that this wolf was very dark, and in no wise resembled 
the old white one we had killed. 
Anxious to see if the wolf would again show himself, 
T remained perfectly motionless in the same spot for 
several minutes. A red squirrel chattered, and some 
ravens flew up half way between me and the spot where 
the wolf had disappeared. Then I heard a twig snap 
on the river bank directly opposite. It was too cold 
to stand waiting longer, for my feet were fast becoming 
numb, but before I went back to the sled I ran across 
to the mainland, and satisfied myself from the wolf's 
vtack that he had run up just inside the edge of the 
timber, coming ^s close as he could without exposing 
himself. 
This was my last trip to the cache that night. I did 
not go near the poison, for as the wolf was in the 
immediate neighborhood I concluded the chances for 
his taking it were better if things were left undisturbed. 
After breakfast the next morning Mac and I started 
, down to investigate. Another light snow had fallen in 
the night. Showing up plainly in this scarcely 30ft. from 
our tent, we came upon fresh wolf tracks, made in the 
early morning hours. To surprise Mac on his return 
the night before I had cut a small tree and thrown the 
dead wolf across it directly in the trail, and to this 
place the other wolf had come. Plainly its boldness 
was clue to its anxiety for its lost mate. Now that it 
knew conclusively the fate which had befallen him, we 
concluded this wolf would not delay on the order of its 
leaving the country. We had little faith in finding it 
dead, for we thought the death of the other wolf would 
put it on its guard against the poison. In this we were 
curiously mistaken, however, for at the sheep camp, a 
few hundred yards below the spot where the first wolf 
had died, we found the other wolf dead also, though 
still warm. It was a she wolf, younger, smaller and 
darker than the old dog wolf we had found the night 
before. The top of her back was almost black, and 
the skin was unusually handsome. From the tracks it 
was evident that she had taken the poison after she had 
visited the dead body of her mate. She had dug it out 
of the snow, upset the plate and eaten half the con- 
tents. The indications suggested suicide. The sagacity 
of the wolf tribe is well known, and this particular wolf 
had sufficient evidence to make her fully aware of the 
cause of her mate's death. At varioits times oil tile pM- 
vioLis day she had visited the spot from which I had 
carried him, and though 1 cannot be certain of the 
fact, I believe that she knew the whereabouts of the 
poison long before she touched it. If the taking of the 
poison were not the act of a grieved nature, why did she 
return to the spot wlaere it was hidden after seeing the 
dead body of her mate? Lacking a fixed purpose, the 
instinct of self-preservation would, one might reason- 
ably infer, have warned her to fly elsewhere. At any 
MAC AND THE SECOND WOLF. 
rate, I give the facts as they occurred. The incident 
seemed to me to have considerable interest, and for 
this reason I have given it in detail. 
Several wolverines sampled our poison — or perhaps 
it was the same wolverine — on several occasions. At 
any rate we were unable to find that the poison had 
proved fatal. A red fox which took two or three baits 
in succession and died very close to the sheep camp 
was carried off by a lynx. At first I could not figure 
out what had become of the fox, for the lynx had not 
eaten him at the spot where he fell for the last time. 
Here the fox's track had ended, and the track of the 
lynx which had been following in the fox's trail was 
the only one in evidence. Had the lynx dragged off 
the dead fox, I should have understood at once; but 
the only thing left to show what had become of my 
A YUKON MONSTER. 
game was the not very noticeable impression left by 
the fox's brush in the snow at the side of the trail. - 
Quarter of a mile further on the lynx had gone into 
a dark nook under some fir trees, and had a lunch off 
Mr. Fox. I use the term "lunch" advisedly, for the 
formal meal was not partaken of till by a very devious 
course he had reached another piece of thick timber 
nearly a mile further on. Here the snow was strewn" 
for a radius of 20ft. with tufts of hair and a very few frag- 
ments of crunched bone. Like the Timbuctoo cassowary 
who ate up the missionery, the lynx had made a clean 
job of it — "bodj-, bones, and hymn book too." 
I looked the ground over carefully, but could not find 
that he had carried off anything when he left, or cached 
any part of the fox- under the snow or in neighboring 
trees. It was somewhat inexplicable that no sign of 
the skull or vertebr* coilld be found. 
One of Gov. Walsh's Indian dog drivers by the name 
of Fiddler told me that he saw a lynx drag off a dead 
wdveriiie mi tlie river jjist below the Hootalinqua. He 
said the lynx was. ^afefciftg and pulling the wolverine 
after him. 
During our short sojourn in our. cabin we caught two 
marten in a .steel trap only a few feet away from the 
bed in which we slept. We had thrown the wolves' car- 
casses directly behind the cabin; and one night I became 
conscious of the fact that some animal was gnawing at 
tliem. From the noise I thou.ght it was at least a lynx 
or wolverine. I knew just where T could put my hand 
on my rifle in the dark, and I got as far as the door 
of the cabin without making any noise. The door, 
however, was hung 011 wooden hinges, and squeaked 
badly, and as a quiet advance beyond this point was 
out of the question I pulled it open in a hurry and 
darted round to the back end of the cabin. Some very 
dark, small animal sprang into the nearest tree and com- 
menced spitting at me like a cat. By the light of tlie 
moon I could make it out in silhoiiette, head down, 
slowly coming down the side of the tree. I fired at 
it three times at random, and without result. Then 
my partner came out. He had only heard the last shot, 
and wasn't sure but what that was only a tree snap- 
ping ^vith the frost. Meanwhile the marten had gained 
the ground and disappeared. 
Just as I was getting to sleep again I heard the marten 
come back. I lay there for some time trying to forget 
liim, but I could not sleep for his gnawing. Finding 
my efforts in this direction were useles.s, I took the gun 
and walked leisurely to the back of the cabin. The 
marten had grown bolder, and this time refused to leave 
the carcass of the wolf. Instead he poked his head out 
of the hole made by his efforts, combined with those of 
the i-avens, and snarled at me. His language said,, as 
plain as Avords could express it, that I was persona non 
grata, and that he did not propose to relinquish his 
meal to any new-comer. I took a. pot shot at him, 
dkstant about 4ft.. and missed. 
Before I could get to sleep he "wa& back again. I 
had no trap in the cabin at the time, but it occurred 
to me that perhaps I might be able to poison the reck- 
less little dcA-il; so I got out of bed, and lighting a 
candle, mixed some strychnine and grease. The marten 
Avith very bad grace permitted me to deposit this in 
the cavity of the wolf, but by the time I had gotten to 
bed was back again. He stayed there till daylight, 
AAdiich fortunately was not long coming, and paid not 
the slightest attention to the poison. 
That afternoon I got a fox trap and set it at the 
place the marten had climbed up on the wolf's body. 
About dark, as I was coming up the trail with a pail of 
chipped ice from the river, I saw the marten directly 
in the trail. He loped along like a rabbit, looking back 
at me meauAvhile over his shoulder. Mac had been 
thaAving the ice out of a tent that day to lighten if, 
and for this purpose he had »built a large camp-fire 
about 6ft. from the corner of the cabin, where the wolves 
lay. The fire was still blazing fitfullj% and I hardly 
thought we would hear aaything from the marten that 
night. I Avas mistaken, hoAvever, for just as we sat 
doAvn to supper avc heard a succession of spittings, 
snarhngs and scratchings that told us the trap had done 
its work. The little freebooter sprang the full length of 
the chain at me when I reached the corner of the cabin, 
club in hand, but his fiery spirit went out a moment 
after at>the first rap of the club. Two or three nights 
after we heard another marten at the same spot. I got 
up from bed and set the trap with numbed fingers, for 
it was a 40-beIow night, and a fcAV moments later Ave had 
this one also. 
This marten did a very curious thing, for after being 
caught by the hind leg he craAvled through the boAved 
jaws of the trap, thus twisting his leg almost into a knot. 
It was a female, fully a third smaller than the first, and 
so very dark as to be almost black. The Avarm brown 
that characterizes most marten Avas lacking. These 
Yukon marten have a white patch on their throats, in 
no Avay suggestive of the orange so often seen on 
Maine or Eastern specimens. A Hudson's Bay man 
tells me that the white is characteristic of the marten 
from the extreme north. 
While coming up the river on the ice an ordinary 
chinchilla-colored woods mouse caused me more fright 
and mental suffering than any of the larger wild animals 
Avould be likely to occasion. This mouse craAvled inside 
my blankets as I Avas lying out one cold night, just 
beloAv Rink Rapids, and deliberately attempted to bite 
a chunk from oft" the end of my nose. Nature has en- 
dowed me Avith plenty of nose, and I could easily have 
spared the piece, but the mouse's method of taking it 
Avas very painful— the tooth marks are in evidence to 
this day— and I sprang half out of bed and made a fran- 
tic effort to escape from my small antagonist. When 
I Avas thoroughly aAvake I watched, and soon saAv the 
mouse return to the attack. I secured a stick, and rest- 
ing on one elbow, endeavored to rid myself of the 
troublesome thing; and I recalled certain occasions 
when I had ridiculed girls I kncAV for being afraid of 
mice. Finally I almost hit the mouse, and he gave up 
the foray for the time being, and a truce having been 
declared, the two armies rested on their arms. 
Just at daybreak, hoAvever, that mouse got down into 
the blankets again and bit me on the hand. It was 
lighter now, and I could see better, and wasn't quite 
so sleepy; and this time my aim was truer. My partner 
when awakened in the night had thought I was delirious, 
and tried to soothe me; but when I showed him the 
dead mouse and my swollen nose he accepted me once 
more as a rational being. J. B. Burnham. 
How does a Buddhist fisherman justify his trade? By 
arguing, says Mr. Young, that he does not kill his fish, 
but only draws it out of the Avater, whereafter the fish 
dies a quite natural death. We know a better story than 
that, of Mohammedan lascars on the Eastern steamship 
lines. No good Mohammedan eats pork. But your 
Moslem lascar has acquired a beHef in the transubstan- 
tiating virtue of sea water. So he hooks his chunk of 
pork to a line, tosses it overboard, and after a reverent 
pause begins to haul in, hand over hand, to his nasal, 
slow chant, "Jao suar, idhar ao machee," which being 
interpreted means, "Away, pig; come along, fish." Ex- 
perience has proved the practical efficacy of this rite. — 
London Daily News. 
